The Lighthouse Stevensons by Bella Bathurst is about the history of lighthouses in Scotland. I don’t know when I bought this book but it’s the sort of history that I like as it is written for the general reader and is slightly quirky. My copy is obviously second-hand as it has a long note written on the inside cover, dated Christmas 2011, from Nathan to Paul thanking the latter for helping the former through some recovery – it’s quite a heartfelt note and it seemed a bit like snooping to read it but I hope that Paul enjoyed the book and that Nathan continued to recover.
In the late 1700s Scotland didn’t have official lighthouses but it did have plenty of wrecks around its shores and a significant proportion of the population who benefitted from flotsam and jetsam. Occasionally, local people would light their own fires and encourage ships onto rocks so that they could take the cargo. The Northern Lighthouse Board was set up to establish lighthouses in the most dangerous places around the coast and to keep ships and their crews safe. The first engineer was called Thomas Smith but he was succeeded by three generations descended from his stepsons, all of whom had the surname Stevenson. The building and maintaining of the lighthouses became a family affair.
The author takes us through these generations, introducing us to the men involved, and showing how the building of lighthouses changed to meet the challenges of the Scottish coast and climate. For each main character she concentrates on one specific lighthouse that they built and guides us through the work that was involved and how they solved the problems that they faced. It’s fascinating stuff. There is enough information so that you can see what is happening without going into the engineering detail and the author enlivens the narrative by telling us about the humans behind the achievements. There are some good illustrations of the lighthouses featured. We also get to hear about the nephew who, after training to build lighthouses, decided that the trade was not for him and that he would write books instead – he was Robert Louis Stevenson.
I did enjoy this book but have decided not to keep it. I do own some books about engineering and industry but it’s not a particular interest of mine and I don’t think that I will ever reread this volume. It shall go to Oxfam and be resold for an excellent cause.
